Analysis of the good, bad, and embarrassing movies from my personal collection.

Monday, December 12, 2011

The Indiana Film Journalists Association 2011 Awards

Here are the results from the IFJA's 2011 Awards. I figured I'd throw in my two cents for most of these. For Best Picture, I was glad to see a diverse group of films make the final list. I thought Drive was the best of the year thus far and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was amazing (a full review is coming soon). I voted for Nicolas Winding Refn for Best Director, though I'm fine with the results as The Artist certainly took skill to make. In the acting category, my main issue was the exclusion of Michael Fassbender, which I thought was the performance of the year. It's hard to root against Paul Giamatti, though. Anyway, that's all I've got. I'll be releasing my personal Top Ten films early 2012.

Indiana Film Journalists Association announces 2011 Awards

The Indiana Film Journalists Association, an organization of journalists dedicated to promoting quality film criticism in the Hoosier State, is pleased to announce its annual film awards for 2011.

The Artist took top honors, winning Best Film as well as Best Director (Michel Hazanavicius) and Best Musical Score (Ludovic Bource).

Win Win earned two prizes, Paul Giamatti for Best Actor and Thomas McCarthy for Best Original Screenplay.

The Descendants, which was named runner-up for Best Film, won Best Adapted Screenplay for Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.

Elizabeth Olsen took the Best Actress prize for Martha Marcy May Marlene, while Viola Davis was named Best Supporting Actress for The Help. Christopher Plummer took Best Supporting Actor for Beginners.

Winners were declared in 14 categories, with a runner-up in 13 categories. In addition, a total of 10 movies (including the winner and runner-up) were recognized as Finalists for the top prize, Best Film of the Year.

Rango was named Best Animated Film, Project Nim Best Documentary and The Skin I Live In Best Foreign Language Film. The Tree of Life was given the Original Vision Award.

Lindsay Goffman was honored with The Hoosier Award as the producer of Dumbstruck, a documentary about ventriloquists that was released nationally by Magnolia Pictures.

A word of explanation about the last two categories:

The Original Vision Award is meant to recognize a film that is especially innovative or groundbreaking.

The Hoosier Award recognizes a significant cinematic contribution by a person or persons with Indiana roots. As a special award, no runner-up is declared.

The following is a complete list of honored films:

Best Film of the Year

Winner: The Artist

Runner-up: The Descendants

Other Finalists: Coriolanus, Drive, Hugo, Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Muppets, The Skin I Live In, Super 8, The Tree of Life.

Best Animated Film

Winner: Rango

Runner-up: Winnie the Pooh

Best Foreign Language Film

Winner: The Skin I Live In

Runner-up: 13 Assassins

Best Documentary

Winner: Project Nim

Runner-up: Into the Abyss

Best Original Screenplay

Winner: Thomas McCarthy, Win Win

Runner-up: J.C. Chandor, Margin Call

Best Adapted Screenplay

Winner: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, The Descendants

Runner-up: Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, Moneyball

Best Director

Winner: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

Runner-up: Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

Best Actress

Winner: Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene

Runner-up: Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin

Best Supporting Actress

Winner: Viola Davis, The Help

Runner-up: Amy Ryan, Win Win

Best Actor

Winner: Paul Giamatti, Win Win

Runner-up: Ralph Fiennes, Coriolanus

Best Supporting Actor

Winner: Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Runner-up: Albert Brooks, Drive

Best Musical Score

Winner: Ludovic Bource, The Artist

Runner-up: Howard Shore, Hugo

Original Vision Award

Winner: The Tree of Life

Runner-up: The Artist

The Hoosier Award

Winner: Lindsay Goffman, producer of Dumbstruck

About IFJA: The Indiana Film Journalists Association was established in February 2009 with six founding members, and has since expanded its roster to 11. Members must reside in the Hoosier State and produce consistent, quality film criticism or commentary in any medium.